ARCHITECT SUCCESSES

SEE ALL
Champ Titles Raised $18M from Point72 Ventures
Champ Titles Raised $18M from Point72 Ventures

Architect Partners was the exclusive Financial Advisor to Champ Titles.

Transaction Overview

On March 27, 2024, Cleveland-based digital title and registration platform Champ Titles announced an $18 million Series C equity round led by Point72 Ventures with participation by existing investors.

Company Description

Champ Titles provides a digital title and registration suite to streamline the vehicle titling process. Their platform enables the creation of legal, digital titles for easy transfer and verification, serving insurance carriers, lenders, state governments, auto dealers, and owners. Stakeholders, including state motor vehicle departments, lenders, and vehicle owners, benefit from a unified and transparent system, where all information is readily accessible and transaction times are markedly reduced. The governance of the digital platform is established through clear guidelines, ensuring all parties adhere to the updated processes and regulations.

Champ Titles’ success is measured by the elimination of more than 5 million pieces of paper annually on average per state; a reduction in processing time from 40-60 days to a matter of hours; increased productivity of DMV title clerks processing more than five times as many titles per day; and the improved experience for consumers in each state that has adopted Champ Titles’ solutions. Over the last twelve months, the company has successfully onboarded new states including New Jersey, Kentucky, and Illinois, and expanded its relationship with West Virginia by creating the first National Digital Titling Clearinghouse (NDTC). Through these efforts, the company has grown rapidly with revenue increasing by more than 300% year over year. 

Founded in 2018 by CEO, Shane Bigelow, the company now has 63 employees and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. 

Funding

In this Series C funding round, Champ Titles raised $18M from Point72 Ventures and existing investors including W.R. Berkley Corporation, Eos Venture Partners, Guidewire Software, and Rev1 Ventures, bringing the total amount raised since inception to $45M. 

In the prior Series B round, Champ Titles raised $13M from Guidewire Software, Eos Venture Partners, and Ally Ventures.

Before that, Champ Titles raised $13.5M in 2021 in a Series A. Emergents, now Architect Partners, served as the exclusive Financial Advisor for that financing. 

Competition

Champ Titles’ biggest competitors are existing state DMVs deciding to be a software company and developing solutions on their own or via large systems developers.  However, they also compete with other digital title networks such as Cario and Oxhead Alpha/Tezos. In addition, technology-enabled DMV solutions such as Fast Enterprises are seen as competitive but don’t offer the same efficacy.

 

Architect Partners’ Perspective

Champ Titles’ SaaS-based solutions present a compelling example of blockchain-enabled infrastructure solving real-world problems.  By focusing on the needs and pain points of legacy auto title, registration, and lien processing, Champ has leveraged the power of blockchain to transform critical government services.  The result is exponentially accelerated processing time for DMV constituents, with improved accuracy and reduced cost.  Yet Champ’s solutions capture many key benefits of on-chain data processing – which include trust, transparency, data integrity, security, and efficiency – without users even being aware of their blockchain foundations.  

While much attention is focused on recent resilience in crypto asset prices, we believe 2024 will see significant growth in non-speculative enterprise applications for distributed ledger technology.  Champ’s successful raise demonstrates investor interest in practical and scalable solutions to real-world problems.

Insights

Week of August 26 – September 1

Glenn Gottlieb
September 4, 2024
DOWNLOAD FULL REPORT

26 Crypto Private Financings Raised ~$131M 

Rolling 3-Month-Average: $174M

Rolling 52-Week Average: $198M

 

The online gaming industry is a colossal force in the global entertainment landscape, with staggering growth and economic impact. In 2023, the global online gaming market was valued at $87.22 billion and is projected to reach $229 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7%.  With 2.82 billion online gamers worldwide, the industry’s reach is unprecedented, spanning diverse demographics and geographies.

 

With this as a background, the race to dominate Web3 gaming is on.   Gameplay Galaxy, a game development company, recently raised $24 million in a seed funding round led by Blockchain Capital and Merit Circle. This significant investment can be attributed to several key factors that have positioned the company as a promising player in the evolving gaming industry.

 

Gameplay Galaxy has a proven track record of success in the mobile gaming market. The company is behind the popular “Trial Xtreme” series, which has amassed over 250 million downloads. This demonstrates their ability to create engaging and widely appealing games, giving investors confidence in their capacity to deliver successful products.

 

Gameplay Galaxy is also at the forefront of the Web3 gaming revolution. They are developing “Trial Xtreme Freedom,” a Web3-based extreme sports game that incorporates innovative features such as player-owned tracks, in-game asset ownership, and token earning mechanisms. This aligns with the growing interest in blockchain-based gaming and the potential for new economic models within the gaming ecosystem.

 

The company’s vision and approach to Web3 gaming have resonated with investors. Gameplay Galaxy sees Web3 as a natural evolution of the Free-to-Play model, focusing on integrating digital ownership and decentralized economies into familiar gaming settings. Their emphasis on creating a seamless transition for users from traditional games to Web3 experiences, while potentially driving superior key performance indicators, has contributed to investor confidence in their ability to achieve widespread mainstream success in the Web3 gaming space.